Double-crossed and left without water in the desert, Cable Hogue is saved when
he finds a spring. It is in just the right spot for a much needed rest stop on
the local stagecoach line, and Hogue uses this to his advantage. He builds a
house and makes money off the stagecoach passengers. Hildy, a whore from the
nearest town, moves in with him. Hogue has everything going his way until the
advent of the automobile ends the era of the stagecoach.

****

Sam Peckinpah followed The Wild Bunch with this intimate, eccentric, appealing
1970 comedy, which treats many of the same themes in a soft, regretful mode.
As Hogue, the tapped-out prospector who has no one but God to talk to in the
middle of his yellow desert, Jason Robards puts his theatrical gestures to
good use; he's rarely seemed so at home in a movie. But the film belongs to
Stella Stevens, who, as the prostitute who moves in with Hogue, shows the kind
of warmth and spirit that would have made her a major star had she not been
pinioned by changing tastes. With David Warner, a devil's emissary who arrives
on a big black motorcycle.

An amusing, if weak, addition to the Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns
Collection package. The image quality is good bordering on being the
best in the small collection. The transfer again sports an expected progressive and anamorphic
rendering with good
detail. Colors look very good and a shade of digital noise exists. The
audio sounded fine to me, if dialogue was a bit muted in spots. Another
commentary is offered with more anecdotal Peckinpah color stories. The featurette has a Stella Stevens documentary and it is worthwhile
viewing in my opinion.
I suppose the boxset overall leaves me a little under-whelmed, but
possibly due to my over anticipation for the films with the transfers a
notch below Warner's usual standard. Still you can't fault the extras or
the price with the films looking better than I have seen to date. We
still recommend the boxset if a shade less enthusiastically than we did
initially.